Years later, I was playing in a competition at The Buckinghamshire. We duly arrived nice and early and headed for the bar, where our hosts offered us drinks, and I ordered a ginger beer. Now growing up, I didn’t really like the taste that much, but on this occasion I thought “I’ll give it a go” (We’re a gullible lot, us golfers, prepared to try just about anything if we think it’ll give us an advantage!), so we headed off to hit a few shots before heading for the first tee.

We got there, and, low and behold, who is acting starter but John O’Leary, JJ to his friends. I don’t know if you remember but he was quite the fashion king of the 70’s, with his signature trousers with different coloured legs. After we did some catching up, I stood up on the tee. Now the proper shot to hit is a three wood, and aim down the left, but not me. Out with the driver and I managed to get it down the middle, quite pleased really, as it is a dog leg right with a lake all the way down the right hand side.

We did get beat that day – it makes it tough having to give so many shots, especially when a high handicapper is getting a shot on a par 5 who holes his third shot for a net 2! I’ve never had an albatross or a double eagle, as the Americans call them, and this day I needed one for a half.
Anyway, back to the subject, ginger. I was at a country fair and mentioned what Hogas has to say on the subject, and they confirmed it, telling me how good it is for the circulation, and it certainly would heighten sensitivity in the fingers.

So there you have my thoughts on ginger. Is it psychological, or is it just in the mind, give it a go, it sure beats chewing tobacco!.

You will need to stand up for this. Take a club and hold it at arm’s length away from you, just in your fingers, no thumb, touching the club with your index finger at the top of the grip, and the clubhead just off the ground. Extend your little finger down the grip and work the club upwards in your fingers all the way to the clubhead. The ways to cheat are obvious, but remember, you are only cheating yourself. The Arm must be held straight in order for this to be most effective. If you can do this twice with both hands to start with, that will be most impressive.

Certainly, if you are fit, then concentration is a lot easier.

Flexibility, however, is vital. Even some of the players that can be seen on the Senior tours, although they are taking up more room than they used to, are still flexible!

So what I am saying is, if you are sat at a desk all day, five or six days a week, with little or no stretching or exercise, it is a recipe for disaster to go to the first tee at the weekend, have a couple of swings, and try and rip it 300 yards down the middle. Not only can you expect physical damage, but you certainly can’t expect to play good golf!

So please, take the time during the week to stretch, and preferably to swing a club every day. (I’m currently reseeding my lawn). In time we will be posting up videos on the site to explain some simple moves.

It never ceases to amaze me in golf tuition how the pro will say to his pupil “Let’s see you hit a few shots” without any thought as to whether the pupil has stretched and loosened up.

DO NOT rush onto the range to hit balls, and forget to stretch. Ask yourself a simple question “Why am I here?” People play golf for a number of reasons, but the number one reason should be F-U-N!!!

However, I will give some advice that I have learnt over the years.

WATER is vital – how many of us actually drink the 8 glasses a day that doctors tell us we should? I had a problem with gout a few years back, and they suggested that I was dehydrated. I was shocked, this was in winter, I had a mental image of someone in the desert being dehydrated, but not someone is Surrey, England in the middle of winter! Consequently, I hit the bottle, not alcohol, it has to be straight H2O. Tea and coffee do not count. Within two days, I was clear. Just as an aside, did you know that if you live in a country where it is safe to drink tap water, if you fill up a jug and let it stand for 20 minutes, the chlorine will dissipate, possibly giving you better quality drinking water than you would get from bottled water, which has to have chlorine added to give it a shelf life?

I have to laugh when I read on the label of a certain bottled water that this water has been filtered for millions of years through volcanic rock, then has a “best by” date!

So especially on the golf course keep up your fluid levels it will not only keep your body functioning properly it will help you concentrate.

I can’t tell you who will win as I stand on the practice ground of a tournament, but I sure can tell you who won’t. Colin Montgomerie, probably the best golfer to never win a Major, never worked on his swing during a tournament. That was reserved for when he was away from playing tournaments.

Colin would arrive in time to hit a few shots with each club to loosen up, go to the putting green, hit a few putts and head for the first tee, and would often be seen jumping up and down. Why? To get his heart rate up. He was so relaxed he had to get pumped!

Jack Nicklaus said that if you’re not nervous on the first tee of a tournament, then you shouldn’t be there.

However, there are plenty of other ways to get fit. I am a fan of the Rocky movies, especially the one where Stallone is preparing to fight Dolf Lundgren. Dolf is being prepared with all the latest high tech equipment, whilst Stallone is in a barn utilizing what it around him.

So while there is lots of high tech equipment available, and some is very good indeed, I would rather use what you will most likely have already.

KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN? One of the misconceptions that a lot of high handicappers have is that they blame all their bad shots on lifting their head, and the advice they seem to tell others is “Keep your head down!” It can, however, be a factor, so if you’re having a problem playing level headed golf, here is a tip that will help:

DOOR EXERCISE NO. 1

Take up your stance in a door frame with your forehead resting on the upright opposite the hinges, with one foot either side of the doorway, and make the swing, without the club. I was teaching a lady a few years back who I had given this exercise to, she came back the following week and told me she had done the exercise, but she couldn’t get the club through!  Perhaps it was my fault for not explaining correctly, but it did conjure up images of this lady trying to swing her club through the wall!

Keeping your head level on the backswing is a most important thing, and this tip will certainly help.

DOOR EXERCISE NO. 2

This is a strength training exercise. A very important thing for any player is to have strong hands. This is why I strongly advocate working with the powerball.

So back to the doorway. This time, with a club, take up the address position, with the club head down at the bottom of the frame. Now take one hand off the club and push the handle towards the target line. Alternate hands, pushing as hard as you can to the count of five, keep going from hand to hand. This is resistance training, and it will build the right muscles for you to be strong at the point of impact.

However, discipline is paramount to success in anything, so here goes.

One of the greatest golfers ever, Ben Hogan, said “Under pressure, a good swing gets better.” I want to take a long look at that statement, because there is so much in that for us that perhaps doesn’t first appear. Top golf is all about character and, as in life, when we are under pressure, it’s what comes out that shows who we really are.

I was pleased to see the young Rory McIlroy, having collapsed in the Masters, go on to win so convincingly in the US Open later in the year. He showed maturity way beyond his years.

Bernhard Langer, missing a putt for the Ryder Cup – thinking about it, he was probably the best man out there to miss; lesser men would have been devastated for life. Bernhard went out and won the following week.

So think about it – what are the most pressured golf shots we hit?

An old pal of mine qualified for The Open some years ago at Sandwich, and I went down to watch and support him. He stood up on the first, and someone shouted just as he was about to swing. He did the right thing and backed off, went through his routine again, and split the fairway. He ran down off the tee and said to me “John, that’s 40 yards longer than anything I’ve ever hit!” He didn’t play well that day, but at the last he was in a greenside bunker, and very nearly holed it, which pleased the crowd. A point to be made here that some tour pros should ponder, that they are in the entertainment industry, and people pay a lot of money to watch them. Yes I understand the need to be focussed, but some need to interact with the galleries a lot more, especially on pro-am days. Again I mention the Fun Factor – if you’re not having fun, go do something else!

Back to the subject for the teaching pro: the most pressured shot is the demo shot in front of a group class – they will not be impressed with a worm burner!

One tour pro dead topped it off the first tee in a tournament, and fell about laughing, saying “I can’t remember the last time I did that!”

For the CEO of a company, the most pressure he will ever feel is not the year end or any business decision, it is the first tee of his company’s golf day. He stands up there and knows full well that his entire company is thinking, “Top it, put it in the trees or even miss it completely!” I have the answer for the company MD who finds himself in such a situation, as as much as my fellow directors may want me to give a lot away, this one I will not! It will cost you dearly, but the key word is pressure, and it virtually guarantees that opening tee shot down the middle.

People play for all sorts of different reasons. However, I believe the most important answer is – because I enjoy it!

It’s good to remind yourself of that from time to time. I have seen so many on the course that, to watch them, you’d think they were doing hard labour, and the game has become a chore.

Take time to smell the flowers.

You know, a lot of golf courses are built in glorious surroundings – ENJOY it!

You can have as much golf tuition as you like on trying to perfect your swing, and you can get so intense with your study and trying to do this or that, that you forget WHY? There is a saying that “always learning, they never come to a knowledge of the truth”.

So you can get “paralysis by analysis”, so you end up having your head filled up with so much, you forget why you are here.

If you are a right handed player, then when pumping with the right hand, concentrate on squeezing with the two middle fingers, and on the left hand concentrate on the last three fingers, as these are the ones that consciously do the holding during the swing.

Using a squash ball in like manner can also be useful and it has the added advantage that you can take it with you wherever you go, well almost.

Whereas tour players are not necessarily great when it comes to golf tuition, this is great advice.

Barry McGuire, a rock musician from the ‘70s, sang a song with the lyrics, “We’ve got time, we’ve got all the time in the world”, and it was such a melodious tune, but you know there is so much truth in those lines. Think about the golf swing – the ball is going nowhere until you hit it, so what is the hurry?

Jack Nicklaus used to come under fire for taking a long time over each shot, but he justified himself by saying that he walked quickly between shots.

As I advance in years, I have started playing more tennis, and I’m sure my golf has helped with timing, especially in the transition. The transition, for those that don’t know, is where we complete the backswing and start the downswing. Smoothness is vital at this point, and I have noticed the same is as true in tennis as in golf. We have so much time, even though a ball is coming rapidly towards you.

One of the best ways to feel this is to be conscious of the weight of the clubhead at the top of the backswing, and then come down.

Just like a good joke, timing is everything. As young players, we were taught to “hum a waltz”. This is still good advice today, having a break dance going through your mind is probably going to be detrimental to having rhythm in your swing.

A postman was asked, “Why do you always whistle on your round? You must be very happy.” His reply was that he whistles to make himself happy.

Actually, humming is better because it is an internal thing.

What goes on in your heart always manifests on the outside, if you are stressed out all the time, it will come out in the way you swing a club. Conversely, if you are relaxed by nature, you will find it easy to relax on the course.

In the times we live there can be so much that demands our attention, so her is my advice. Leave early to go to your game, get to the club at least an hour before your tee time. Get changed, go to the range, plenty of stretching, start with hitting some sand wedges and work through the bag, odd numbers on the way up SI,9,7,5,3,5Wood DRIVER, and then back down with the evens 4Wood, 4,6,8 W. Only git 3-5 balls with each, this is not serious practice, this is just loosening up. Remember, rhythm is the key.

Go to the chipping green for no more than ten chips, hit a few putts of varying lengths. This will give you, most importantly, a feel for the speed of the greens.

WANDER over to the first tee at least 10 minutes before your tee off time. You are now ready. Three or four practice swings and go, launch time.

I was playing with a 26 year old that plays off a handicap of 2. After I outdrove him, he asked my age and was shocked, and said he had never seen anyone in their 50’s hit it that far. Of course, I was flattered, but why is it that I can do this (no, he wasn’t using hickory shafted clubs and a gutta percha ball!) The one word answer is

RHYTHM!!!